Spring Break
National book award finalist visits campus, tells ghost stories
Mark Hensch
Issue date: 11/5/09 Section: News
Author and journalist Dennis Covington visited campus this week as part of the Visiting Writers Program sponsored by the English department. Giving two formal presentations in Phillips Auditorium, the former National Book Award finalist also mingled with students, telling ghost stories at an off-campus residence located at 1560 Barber Dr.
"Dennis Covington gets access to things another reporter or author might not," said Philip Zoutendam, the president of Hillsdale's literature honorary. "It is quite an opportunity to have an author like him on campus."
Covington first spoke at 8 p.m. Nov. 1 in Phillips, giving a public reading of excerpts from his past works as well as teasers from his upcoming novel. The second speech - titled "The Problem of the Azure-Hooded Jay" - dealt with the role of the reliable witness in reporting. As Covington sees it, fiction and non-fiction are equally capable of expressing truth.
"I am a hybrid," Covington said. "I write fiction and non-fiction, switching hats as I go. I am always working on whatever I am not supposed to be working on."
The author of five books so far, Covington began his literary career by teaching English and writing short fiction stories at the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio. Having served in the U.S. Army, he said the revolutions in Central America during the 1970s intrigued him. Taking up the mantle of freelance journalist, he traveled to El Salvador in 1979 without any prior journalism, international travel or Spanish experience.
"I wanted to see what war is like," he said.
Writing for Birmingham, Ala.'s "Birmingham Post-Herald," Covington eventually visited El Salvador 13 times. As more and more of his stories were sold, "Vogue" magazine sent him to Nicaragua to cover the election of Central America's first female president.
Following the end of hostilities in Central America, he wrote for the "New York Times" in America's Deep South. There he received an assignment about a Southern preacher who tried killing his wife with poisonous snakes. The ensuing article attracted the eyes of book publishers, leading to Covington's first work of non-fiction, "Salvation on Sand Mountain."
"Dennis Covington gets access to things another reporter or author might not," said Philip Zoutendam, the president of Hillsdale's literature honorary. "It is quite an opportunity to have an author like him on campus."
Covington first spoke at 8 p.m. Nov. 1 in Phillips, giving a public reading of excerpts from his past works as well as teasers from his upcoming novel. The second speech - titled "The Problem of the Azure-Hooded Jay" - dealt with the role of the reliable witness in reporting. As Covington sees it, fiction and non-fiction are equally capable of expressing truth.
"I am a hybrid," Covington said. "I write fiction and non-fiction, switching hats as I go. I am always working on whatever I am not supposed to be working on."
The author of five books so far, Covington began his literary career by teaching English and writing short fiction stories at the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio. Having served in the U.S. Army, he said the revolutions in Central America during the 1970s intrigued him. Taking up the mantle of freelance journalist, he traveled to El Salvador in 1979 without any prior journalism, international travel or Spanish experience.
"I wanted to see what war is like," he said.
Writing for Birmingham, Ala.'s "Birmingham Post-Herald," Covington eventually visited El Salvador 13 times. As more and more of his stories were sold, "Vogue" magazine sent him to Nicaragua to cover the election of Central America's first female president.
Following the end of hostilities in Central America, he wrote for the "New York Times" in America's Deep South. There he received an assignment about a Southern preacher who tried killing his wife with poisonous snakes. The ensuing article attracted the eyes of book publishers, leading to Covington's first work of non-fiction, "Salvation on Sand Mountain."
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